Applying for a Tinted Permit in Nigeria (Car paperwork)

In early 2016 the Nigeria Police Force introduced a new tinted permit to regulate the use of factory-tinted glass in vehicles on Nigeria’s roads. You have to apply online to start the process, supply various details and then attend a Police State Command twice to complete the process.

You specify an email address and phone number as well as your name and click Register. Then you are sent back to what looks like the same page but look closely and you will see on the bottom above the email and APPLICATION ID boxes there is in red your unique (and never-displayed again) application ID. Save that! It is effectively a password for accessing the site in future and checking application process.

Then enter the email you used, the application ID you just got and click Login.

You have to give various details for your car:

Number plate

Vehicle make/model/year

Insurance number (policy number)

Chassis number

I left NIMC number blank since I didn’t know what that was and it wasn’t a problem.

One tricky thing is you need to scan your Proof of Ownership and Vehicle Licence
and upload. Each must be in JPEG or PNG format less than 100k in file size. You may need help in squashing the file down to an appropriate size.

(On Mac OS use the Preview application to do this possibly reducing the number of pixels in the scans and saving as JPEG and choosing a low enough quality.)

You’ll then get a page you should print (see right) and take to the State Command, together with your vehicle particulars (proof of ownership, green logbook, insurance) and your fingers and face. It may be worth taking photocopy of your vehicle particulars.

Jos notes: Plateau State Police Command is on JD Gomwalk Road, just north of Hill Station roundabout, opposite the prison and a long way before Polo roundabout.

To find the correct office either ask helpful people at the doorway to the police station or go through the doorway, keep walking straight to a building facing you, then go to the right side of that building where it joins others, up the stairs and immediately right and to the end of the corridor. The last office on the right (not the end-of-corridor office in front of you) is the tinted permit office.

Eventually when approved you should get something looking a bit like this, which you need to carry in your car:

Caveats:

They can’t do anything at State Command if there’s no power.

I was told it should take 5 working days. 5 months later it still hadn’t been processed and I had to go back and ask about it several times.

It may be worth getting a phone number for someone in the office if you keep finding they have no power when you visit, in case the application keeps on being delayed or in case given hassle on the road by mobile police checkpoints.

Despite what is clearly said on the printout I was told that the printout was sufficient for me to carry until I got my application approved.

In mid 2016 the site was so overloaded during the day that it was only ever available between 1-6am. If you get timeouts on the site try doing it in the middle of the night. As of early 2017 it seems much better.

Background:

While it’s rather annoying to have to get another tinted permit I’m told that this all came about because a new police chief discovered that the old permits had been issued with no centralised record keeping for verification. In addition this delegates some responsibility to state level whereas everything before involved visits to Abuja, which was a royal pain.